1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to software used for modeling and designing interior or exterior spaces.
2. Background and Relevant Art
As computerized systems have increased in popularity, so has the range of applications that incorporate computational technology. For example, architects and interior designers (or “designers”) use a wide range of design software for designing the aesthetic as well as functional aspects of a given residential or commercial space. While conventional software design programs (e.g., computer-aided design or CAD programs) offer significant benefits over rudimentary drafting, they still nonetheless present various drawbacks.
For instance, conventional software design programs typically require a designer to place components in a specific order, generally one component at a time, or in a linear repetition of product assemblies. This can lead to various inefficiencies if the designer desires to change or modify a design layout. For example, if a designer desires to resize, change product lines, connect separate assemblies, or otherwise reconfigure a design space, conventional software programs require the designer to manually remove and replace the individual components and connectors. One will appreciate that this process is time consuming and does not leverage any pre-work performed earlier in the design phase.
Additionally, conventional design software typically has little if any product intelligence. In most cases, for example, the designer needs to provide information regarding which products may be used together, how those products behave together, and which connection components are required to secure the products together. This often means that the designer needs to remember every part and piece related to the products placed in the context of the layout. Thus, the accuracy, speed of layout creation, and validity of layouts designed using conventional design software are typically dependent upon the skill of the designer.
One will appreciate that conventional design software's dependency upon the skill of the designer can lead to various mistakes and inefficiencies. For example, typical design software can allow spaces to be fairly configurable to suit the designer's design intent without specific regard in many cases to whether the design will actually function or contain all of the necessary parts and components. One will appreciate that even product experts can err when attempting to remember all aspects of any particular component, and can fail to remember or identify a component's relationships with respect to other parts of the layout. For example, a designer may forget to include some of the connection components needed to attach two products together or even use improper connection components.
One of the problems with many conventional design software programs that can lead to the design of physically or functionally impractical structures, is that many such design software programs allow for design only within a space in flat, two-dimensional space or plan view. One will appreciate that because plan views emphasize primarily only length and width from above, the designer will either need to independently visualize the vertical relationship between components, or will need to perform a separate three-dimensional rendering of the design, if the software allows for such. Indeed, conventional design software typically requires the designer to manually enter in the exact vertical coordinates at which a component is to be placed. This often leads to a designer placing components at incorrect vertical heights, or even vertically overlapping components.
To compound this drawback, the designer will often not detect the vertical misplacement of components until after completing the design. For example, the designer may use another program to produce a three-dimensional rendering of a completed design layout. Upon reviewing the three-dimensional rendering of the design layout, the designer may discover the vertically misplaced components. Conventional design software typically requires changes to the design layout or changes in component selection and placement to be made manually, which often results in a complete rework to ensure the designer captures all of the needed changes. For example, changing existing design layouts can involve not only the manual placement of components, but also various considerations related to the changing of the walls, furniture, or other design components.